"If you receive the same Skill more than once from different sources, you gain Skill Mastery in that Skill (see page 74). If you gain the same Talent more than once from different sources, you may elect to trade in the redundant Talent for the Talented (choose one) Talent." -- page 15

1. Is there any reason why you can't make this happen yourself?

For example, if you're playing a noble could you pick Peer (Ecclesiarchy) in "Supremely Connected", and then later choose "Zealot" and "Favored of the Faithful", which grants Peer (Ecclesiarchy), thus ending up with Peer (Ecclesiarchy) and Talented (choose one)?

Or you could choose Press-Ganged, pick a free skill (also available/granted at rank one in your career path) you want to focus on, and get Skill Mastery at character generation?

2. If so, does this remain true after character generation? If you have Intimidate from Stubjack, can you then get Intimidate +10 by picking Intimidate as (for example) a rank 2 Rogue Trader?

3. Similarly, what happens if you have Skill Mastery at Rank 1 and would normally get [skill] +10 later? Can you pick [skill] +10 and end up with [skill] +20?

Note: I have seen the errata. This thread is not about a Career Path's starting Skills and Talents also appearing in the Rank 1 list.

For the first example I would say you should go for the options which suit the character, so if you were creating a noble who was quite closely linked with the ecclesiarchy (or a member if playing a missionary), you may well double up on those aspects.

Trying to do it deliberately regardless of where they come from seems to be missing the point of the origin path.

I would say you should not pick a skill for skill mastery with the free skill from Press-ganged. It represents something you would not normally be skilled with, not extra training in something you know already. These are my opinions, however, and I don't believe you cannot do what you suggested. Talk to your GM about it if you wish to do this.

When buying things with XP (including the starting 500XP) you have to buy the appropriate entry that is an upgrade. If you have a skill trained, you must buy the skill +10 entry to upgrade it, If you have skill +10, you must buy skill +20 to upgrade it.

Little Dave said: